The proud history of the South African Communist Party

The recent remarks by FW de Klerk would not be worth our time and response as he is a politician who has long reached his sell-by date, and an apartheid political dinosaur in the true sense of the word. But for the record it is important to comment about the SACP and the National Democratic Revolution so that no one must be misled by this last president of the illegitimate, minority apartheid regime.

All what de Klerk is saying about the SACP is nothing but an attempt at resuscitating the classical, but failed, apartheid ‘rooi gevaar' tactic which was used by his now extinct National Party and its criminal apartheid regime not only to persecute communists but as part of the whole armoury to fight against the liberation movement. The apartheid regime of which he was a part for his entire adult life, committed acts and pursued policies that were rightly declared as a crime against humanity by the international community. This was often done by the apartheid regime in the name of fighting communism and communists.

De Klerk's latest anti-communist burst is nothing more than rehashing this nonsense, and in fact exposing that the likes of him no longer have any relevance in today's South Africa, if they ever did at all. Not so long ago he let the cat out of the bag by clearly stating he still firmly believes that the bantustan policies were the correct ones for South Africa.

It is indeed a shame that the SABC even ran some of de Klerk's comments as headline news in some of its radio stations, as if what he is saying is anything profoundly new, insightful or remotely progressive. We hope the public broadcaster won't be tempted to hark back to the days of Radio Bantu, Radio South Africa and Springbok Radio, especially by those of its elements in the Board and news services who share de Klerk's anti-communist and anti-SACP sentiments!

We need to remind de Klerk that the reason why his National Party is extinct today, and the SACP has just emerged from its largest Congress ever, with the largest membership in its history, simply reflects the starkly different roles that these two formations have played in the history of South Africa. The National Party till today still remains guilty of one of the most heinous crimes against humanity, whilst the SACP has a proud history of having fought against this evil and the National Party-led apartheid regime!

The tone of de Klerk's speech and accusations against the SACP is as if some of the things he is saying about us we had ever denied. Yes, the SACP unashamedly stands and is struggling for a communist society, as the only logical alternative to the barbarism of capitalism, which has brought only misery and starvation to billions of people in the world. It is a system that, as we speak, is in a deep crisis, throwing additional millions of people into poverty, and even threatening to destroy our planet and the survival of humanity itself.

We know de Klerk makes these points in order to resuscitate another old apartheid trick that the ANC is remote-controlled by the SACP. This is yet another failed attempt used by the apartheid regime to try and discredit the ANC and to implant hatred and mistrust between the ANC and the SACP. Even in this day and age de Klerk still hopes that this trick will work. You cannot teach an old dog new tricks!

Whilst the SACP has acknowledged the many mistakes made by sections of the international communist movement and some of the erstwhile communist governments, this must not blind us to two other realities. 

Firstly, it was the international communist movement that made enormous contributions and sacrifices in the defeat of fascism in the 1940s, at a time when the Western imperialist powers were hoping that Hitler's invasion of the then Soviet Union would weaken and collapse the communist governments at the time. It was the Red Army of the Soviet Union, under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union that defeated Hitler and fascism in the Second World War, thus saving humanity from apartheid's twin evil of fascism. Interestingly the very same National Party of de Klerk was an open admirer of Hitler's fascism! It was this reality of the similarities and collusion between apartheid and fascism that is well captured in our own Brian Bunting's excellent book, ‘The Rise of the South African Reich' published in 1986.

The international communist movement also made a unique and incomparable contribution to the national liberation struggles of the 20th Century worldwide. Without the principled support of the international communist movement, led by the Soviet Union, many countries in the world would not have been liberated today from the shackles of imperialism and apartheid. Indeed our own liberation owes the Soviet Union and the international communist movement enormous debt and gratitude for their unselfish contribution in the struggle against apartheid and in the material and other support to our own national liberation movement.

Secondly, the SACP must also remind de Klerk and all other South Africans about the one other crucial difference between the National Party and the South African Communist Party. The National Party was the principal force repression, darkness and all that has been evil in humanity whilst, on the other hand, the SACP was part of the forces that fought together with the forces of national liberation and democracy, and was therefore part of the victorious forces that defeated the apartheid regime. Today, the National Party is extinct and the apartheid regime is no more, thanks also to the dedication and sacrifices made by South African communists, under the leadership of the South African Communist Party! That is why as South African communists we can proudly say today - as we have always said even in 1950 when the criminal apartheid regime outlawed us - that the SACP belongs to the future of this country, whilst the National Party (of which de Klerk was its last leader) belongs not only to the past, but to the museum of shame in South Africa!

Lest de Klerk, and other liberal fellow travellers, forgets, it is not his generosity that liberated South Africa from the shackles of the apartheid regime, but it was the struggles of the millions of ordinary South Africans - led by the ANC and its allies - that defeated the apartheid regime and dislodged it from power!

Whilst we do not opportunistically distance ourselves from mistakes made by the communist movement, at the same time the history of the SACP is the history of a heroic and principled struggle against national oppression in South Africa, and international solidarity with all other progressive forces in the world in the struggle against capitalism and imperialism.

Again, we have never hidden our views about the national democratic revolution (NDR). The SACP is part of the forces driving our NDR, and we believe that the attainment of the key objectives of the NDR (non-racialism, non-sexism, democracy and a more egalitarian South African society) is an important objective in itself that is worth fighting for. This will go a long way towards the full emancipation of the majority of the people of our country - politically, socially and economically. It is the necessity to continue struggling for the attainment of the objectives of the NDR that binds our alliance together.

However, it is our firm belief as the SACP - as we are being vindicated once again by the current global capitalist crisis - that our people will never attain their full emancipation under capitalism, thus necessitating the intensification of the struggle for socialism. In fact the current capitalist crisis provides even more fertile ground for intensified spread of socialist ideas amongst the masses of the working and poor people globally and in our own country, as part of the offensive to ultimately overthrow the capitalist system.

In fact our answer to de Klerk must be for the SACP, emerging from its highly successful congress, to intensify the spreading of socialist values and ideas in the widest possible sections of South African society, deepen the critique of capitalism as a system, organize the working class as a political force for democracy and socialism by building an even stronger SACP.

This article by SACP General Secretary Blade Nzimande first appeared in the Party's online journal Umsebenzi Online.

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